Creek Fitness Center Remains Closed

June 11, 1985|By Kelly Leon, Staff Writer

COCONUT CREEK — The doors to a Coconut Creek Plaza fitness center, closed three weeks ago and expected to be reopened last week, were still locked Monday and the manager of the plaza said he doesn`t know if or when the center will be back in operation.

``Until we get them (the owners of the center) to sit down at the table, we`re not going to be able to give any comments positive or negative as to what is going on,`` said Bruce Levy, regional manager of the plaza.

Fitness Works, 4853 Coconut Creek Plaza, abruptly closed its doors about three weeks ago, leaving paid members out in the cold.

General Manager Gene Ferguson said the club had closed because he couldn`t afford to pay the phone and electric bills, but that the club was expected to reopen last week.

Levy said, ``We`re probably just as much in the dark as you are.``

He said Zaremba Management Services Inc., which rents out space in the plaza, said his firm is involved in litigation with the fitness center. ``Basically what we`re doing is filing for back rent and the fact that they`ve defaulted on their lease agreement.``

Levy also said, ``Our leasing department is looking into possible replacement`` although he couldn`t say with whom.

He said he wasn`t certain that a health center would remain at that location.

A note on the locked doors of Fitness Works directs people to call Ferguson for ``inquiries only.``

The phone number listed on the note is for the Body Boutique, 7077 W. Broward Blvd., another health club operated by Ferguson.

Ferguson could not be reached for comment Monday at that number or at Cosmopolitan Fitness Center in Hollywood, another club operated by him.

Last week, Ferguson said he was waiting for money from the New Jersey-based corporation that operates the centers to pay the bills.

He had said the phone bill is between $800 and $900 and about $1,800 is owed on the electric bill.

Fitness Works has been in the two-year-old Coconut Creek Plaza for about a year.

Clay Goldstein, who taught aerobics at the center for about nine months, said the health center closed about three weeks ago after the electricity was turned off in the middle of an aerobics class, forcing between 20 and 35 people to cut short their workouts.

Several Coconut Creek residents have complained of buying Fitness Works memberships, some less than a month before the health center closed, only to be locked out of the establishment.

When an exercise facility closes, club owners must give members a pro-rated refund or find alternate facilities within five miles, according to Cheryl Caruso, senior consumer complaint analyst in the state Division of Consumer Services.

Fitness Works members may call the state Division of Consumer Services at 1-800-342-2176 for more information.